| caption: |
salt eating; blankets made from chestnut bark |
| text: |
To Phuima. The village had decreased by two revenue paying houses. The people look well and there are only one old widow [sic]. The young men were drinking dzu and all sucking huge lumps of salt. In the deka chung there were blankets made of the bark of the chestnut tree. These are only made by Kacha Nagas. Five families were carried off by influenza. Only six men have panikhets and of these only one or two irrigate artificially. If the rainfall is small they ditransplant from the seed bed but desert the field for that year. Went on to Tapama. The village was 66 houses in 1905 and is now 86. Crops were fair last year. They have good panikhets. I heard tales of the pre-British days when Kenoma was afraid to go to Haflong and Berrima would go to Haflong and get money with which they bought Kenoma goods - for four annas for a big pig. The goanbura can have the loan of crowbars to clear his watercourse. |
